9/28/04 - LIBYA ACTIONS RECOGNIZED - 2004-09-28

Libya is being recognized for its decision to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction and missile programs subject to the Missile Technology Control Regime. Libya has also taken responsibility for the`deaths of two-hundred-seventy people in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Among other measures, the U.S. is willing to allow regular airline service between the U.S. and Libya. And the U.S. is unblocking more than one-billion-three-hundred-million dollars in frozen Libyan assets.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli says that over the past nine months Libya has taken “significant actions”:

“We have removed all critical elements of Libya's undeclared nuclear program. Libya has signed and implemented the I-A-E-A [International Atomic Energy Agency] additional protocol. They have acceded to the chemical weapons convention. They have destroyed their munitions designed for use with toxic chemicals; they have submitted a declaration of chemical agents to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; they have eliminated their Scud-C missile force and agreed to eliminate [their] Scud-B missiles.”

Mr. Ereli says Libya has also pledged to stop trading military equipment with countries involved in weapons proliferation:

“It was as a result of these efforts that concerns over Libya's weapons of mass destruction programs were considered to no longer pose a barrier to the normalization of U.S.-Libyan relations.”

The U.S. will continue its dialogue with Libya on human rights, political and economic modernization, and regional developments. A statement issued by the White House says the U.S. welcome’s “Libya’s formal renunciation of terrorism and Libyan support in the global war against terrorism.” But, says the statement, the U.S. “must establish confidence that Libya has made a strategic decision that is being carried out in practice by all Libyan agencies and officials.”

Reflecting the Views of the U.S. Government as Broadcast on The Voice of America